Feeding Houston families

Mar 03, 2014

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houston-food-bank-updatedefaultPlayertrueblack/assets/images/partnering-locally/articles/houston-food-bank_101012_878x494.jpg|Food preparation at Houston Food Bank|How a local food bank fights food insecurity one meal at a time ||

(V/O) Brian Greene: If today is a typical day in the Greater Houston area, about fifty-three thousand people will go hungry, and about thirty-six hundred of them, children. Houston Food Bank’s role in the community is leading the fight against hunger.

SUPER: Brian Greene, President/CEO, Houston Food Bank

Brian Greene: When you walk into any supermarket you see just, huge selection of everything looking perfect. In order to make it like that, we also have an incredible amount of waste. What we try and do is capture those products that are perfectly good, and then we distribute it out through our network of over five hundred charities. Most of the programs we serve are pantries that provide food boxes for families in need, but we also specifically target children, as well as seniors.

Jeremy Evans: These meals are going out to meals on wheels for the elderly. Everything that you see here is made from the food bank.

SUPER: Nicholas Lopez, Director, Houston Food Bank, Student Heroes

Nicholas Lopez: Volunteering is essentially The Houston Food Bank. We would not be able to run without the amazing volunteers we have here.

Brian Greene: We have children, as young as eight years old, who can volunteer here. We have many adults, many senior citizens. We pursue youth groups, corporate groups. Any way that we can work with you as an individual or as a family or as a large organization to come in and volunteer, we want to do it.

Serving for Success, is a job-training program for inmates from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, who otherwise would have a very difficult time finding employment.

SUPER: Jeremy, Intern, Houston Food Bank

Jeremy: I found out about the Houston Food Bank at my probation office. It’s a good opportunity for me to hone my cooking skills and really got me thinking about going into some sort of food service.

Brian Greene: Bank of America has been a supporter of Houston Food Bank for many years. One of the biggest things that we receive from Bank of America is the volunteers. On average a volunteer generates about $75 worth of food output per hour that they volunteer. By having the employees engaged at the food bank they learn about our operations and this helps encourage the bank to say “Wow, we want to support this”.

Nicholas Lopez: I love my job here at the Houston Food Bank. It’s not only fun to work here, but, at the end of the day you just know that you’ve done something great.

Brian Greene: We’ve built an infrastructure that can really take a much bigger hit on hunger than we’re doing now. But we can all address problems such as health, education, job training. Things that will make a long-term difference in people’s lives, as well as alleviate hunger.

How a local food bank fights food insecurity one meal at a time/en-us/partnering-locally/houston-food-bank.htmlView Videobankofamerica/en-us/partnering-locally/houston-food-bank.html_self

Our partnership began in 2008 with a monetary donation and has evolved into a collaboration to tackle hunger in Houston.

Hong OgleBank of America

More than 66,000 people go hungry every day in Southeast Texas, including 5,000 children. Their situations vary – some live at or below the poverty line, others earn too much to be considered impoverished and some are experiencing a temporary setback – but all are in need. Since 1982, the Houston Food Bank has worked to relieve hunger in the region. It’s the largest source of food for nearly 600 hunger relief agencies in 18 counties, including church food pantries, homeless shelters, safe havens for the battered and abused, and nutrition sites for children and the elderly.

For the past seven years, Bank of America has supported the Houston Food Bank through grant funding, including an unrestricted Neighborhood Builders grant of $200,000 in 2011 and a $50,000 grant in 2014 to provide 450,000 meals to the Houston community. Every dollar donated to the Food Bank provides three meals – and Bank of America matches individual donations through its Give a Meal program. Thanks to the generous contributions of Houston residents last year, the program raised $112,000, which provided 336,000 meals or the ability to feed 316 people for one full year.

Hundreds of bank employees also volunteer at the Houston Food Bank each year. Most recently, more than 100 employees packed boxes of food weighing 22,080 pounds – the equivalent of 18,400 meals. And 20 employees supported a food drive helping Houstonians identify a food pantry near them, answering 838 calls and helping to feed 2,962 people.

“Our partnership began in 2008 with a monetary donation and has evolved into a collaboration to tackle hunger in Houston,” said Hong Ogle, Bank of America Houston Market President. “Tackling hunger is a critical first step to creating long-term personal success, a stronger community and a capable workforce.” With support from companies like Bank of America, the Food Bank is entering its 33rd year and providing 59 million nutritious meals to more than 800,000 people annually.

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